Suicide and Irony at Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington

Two weeks ago, I wrote a brief article
in remembrance of Abdul Rahman al-Amri, a Saudi prisoner at Guantánamo,
and a long-term hunger striker, who died on May 30, 2007, apparently by committing
suicide. June 10 was another bleak and overlooked anniversary, as it was exactly
two years ago that the news was announced that the first three prisoners had
died at Guantánamo.

Unlike the death of Amri, which went almost unremarked at the time, the deaths
of Ali al-Salami, Mani al-Utaybi, and Yasser al-Zahrani – who, like Amri, were
also long-term hunger strikers, and appeared to have taken the only form of
protest available to them (although the suicide notes they reportedly left
have never been released) – sparked international outrage after Rear Admiral
Harry Harris, the commander of Guantánamo, said,
"I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetric
warfare committed against us," and Colleen Graffy, the deputy assistant
secretary of state for public diplomacy, described the suicides as a "good
PR move to draw attention."

The administration soon assumed a more placatory role, as Cully Stimson,
the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, was pushed
forward to say,
"I wouldn't characterize it as a good PR move. What I would say is that
we are always concerned when someone takes his own life, because as Americans,
we value life, even the lives of violent terrorists who are captured waging
war against our country."

However, as I explain in The
Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal
Prison, the administration soon resumed the offensive, issuing claims
about the men – as with Amri a year later – which were not only extraordinarily
insensitive, but also undeniably contentious, given that all three men had,
like Amri, died without having had the opportunity to test the allegations
against them in a court of law:

"In an attempt to stifle further dissent, and to bolster their view
that the three men were hardened terrorists, the Pentagon released details
of the allegations against them, which served only to highlight almost everything
that was wrong with the system at Guantánamo … Zahrani was accused of
being a Taliban fighter who 'facilitated weapons purchases,' but it was apparent
that he was only 17 years old at the time of his capture [in Afghanistan],
and that this scenario was highly unlikely. In Utaybi's case, the only 'evidence'
that he was an 'enemy combatant' was his involvement with Jamaat-al-Tablighi,
the vast [and apolitical] worldwide missionary organization whose alleged connection
to terrorism was duly exaggerated by the Pentagon, which had the effrontery
to describe it as 'an al-Qaeda 2nd tier recruitment organization.'
Heartless to the last, the administration also admitted that he had actually
been approved for 'transfer to the custody of another country' in November
2005, although Navy Commander Robert Durand said he 'did not know whether Utaybi
had been informed about the transfer recommendation before he killed himself.'
In the case of Salami, the Pentagon alleged that he was 'a mid- to high-level
al-Qaeda operative who had key ties to principal facilitators and senior members
of the group.'

"Although none of the men had taken part in any tribunals, more detailed
allegations against Salami surfaced in the 'evidence' for his CSRT [Combatant
Status Review Tribunal, the military reviews convened to rubber-stamp the prisoners'
prior designation as 'enemy combatants' without rights], although a close inspection
of the allegations reveals that they were mostly made by unidentified 'members'
of al-Qaeda, either in Guantánamo or in other secret prisons: 'a senior
al-Qaeda facilitator' identified him, another senior al-Qaeda figure – a 'lieutenant
– identified him as being 'associated with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,' the 'al-Qaeda
weapons trainer from Tora Bora' identified him from his time in Kabul and at
Khaldan [a military training camp in Afghanistan], and he was also identified
as 'an al-Qaeda courier,' and as someone who 'worked directly for Osama bin
Laden's family.'

"Shorn of these allegations – which summon up images of various 'significant'
prisoners being shown the 'family album' [of prisoner mugshots, which was shown
to all the prisoners in interrogations] in painful circumstances – the only
other allegation was that the 'Issa' guest house [in Faisalabad, where he was
seized with 17 other prisoners, who are all still in Guantánamo, even
though the majority have made viable claims that they were students, seized
by mistake], received the equivalent of jihadi junk mail: apparently, the residents
of the house 'routinely received endorsement letters from a well-known al-Qaeda
operative' to attend the Khaldan camp."

Although the deaths of the three men – and of Amri a year later – encouraged
the Saudi government to apply increased leverage on the U.S. administration
in an attempt to secure the return of the remaining Saudi prisoners that was
ultimately successful – 93 were repatriated from June 2006 (two weeks after
the deaths) to December 2007, and only 13 now remain – the repercussions for
the majority of the prisoners were truly dreadful. After riots broke out in
Camp IV – the only part of the prison that bore any resemblance to conditions
stipulated by the Geneva Conventions, where prisoners shared dormitories and
were allowed a fair degree of social interaction – the military shelved plans
to open up communal areas in a new block, Camp VI, which opened in December
2006, and instead held the camp's relocated prisoners – including a number
from Camp IV, and even the majority of prisoners who had, like Mani al-Utaybi,
been cleared for release after military reviews – in strict solitary confinement
for 22 or 23 hours a day.

Two years on from the deaths of Ali al-Salami, Mani al-Utaybi, and Yasser
al-Zahrani, and the U.S. administration's disgraceful response, the conditions
in which the majority of the 273 prisoners still in Guantánamo are held
is a complete disgrace. At the very least, the administration should immediately
move the 70 or so prisoners who have been cleared for release in to Camp IV,
and should also reflect if it can find a valid explanation for holding the
rest of the prisoners in conditions of such cruel and barbaric isolation that
they are literally losing their minds.

The great irony is that those put forward for trial by military commission
at Guantánamo – as seen in last week's arraignment
of self-confessed 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others accused
of plotting and facilitating the 9/11 attacks – at least have the opportunity
to speak in public. Those who have been cleared of wrongdoing (but who cannot
be repatriated because of international treaties preventing the repatriation
of foreign nationals to countries where they face the risk
of torture) and those who, bizarrely, the administration regards as too
dangerous to be released, but not dangerous enough to be charged, remain completely
isolated from the outside world, slowly losing their sanity while Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, and the few other prisoners facing trial by military commission who
openly admit their allegiance to al-Qaeda, are rewarded with the opportunity
to challenge the legitimacy of their detention – merrily reconfiguring the
trial system as a circus, and defiantly celebrating their desire for martyrdom
– in the full glare of the world's media.

How much longer, I wonder, before another of these hidden, forgotten prisoners
– one of the many innocent men, or one of the purported "minor threats"
– takes his own life, joining Ali al-Salami, Mani al-Utaybi, Yasser al-Zahrani,
and Abdul Rahman al-Amri in an action that, though proscribed in Islam, is
perceived as the only escape from indefinite imprisonment without charge, without
trial, and without hope?

Andy Worthington is a historian based in London. He is the author
of The
Guantánamo Files, the first book to tell the stories
of all the detainees in Guantanámo. He writes regularly on
issues related to Guantánamo and the "War on Terror"
on his Web site.

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